Mother Holle Images

Vintage Illustrations of Mother Holle

The Grimms' fairy tale Mother Holle is often titled Mother Hulda or Mother Frost. In Bechstein's version (same story, different title), it's Goldmarie and Pechmarie, and it's related, although the experts' opinions differ, to a mythological character, Perchta.

We could probably continue, but it's our intention to present it only with vintage color illustrations. So, let's begin!

Anne Anderson (1874-1952)

She illustrated the fairy tale under the title Madame Holl.

 Her Art Nouveau-influenced illustrations were in Old, Old Fairy Tales, published by Thomas Nelson & Sons, New York, in 1933. This is a hardcover version. The softcover was published two years later by Whitman Publishing Company, Racine, Wisconsin.

Thekla Brauer (?-1943)

It's almost impossible to find out anything useful about the German illustrator Thekla Brauer. We don't even know the date of her birth. At least we can feature one of the sixteen color illustrations from Fifty Children’s and Household Tales by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm.

Otto Spamer from Leipzig published it in 1896, the book was state-of-the-art at the time. Here are all the color illustrations from the book.

Gertrud Caspari (1873-1948)

Ever hear of Caspari style? Well, she invented it. Bold outlines, bright colors, and large areas of monochromatic shades are still the go-to standard for children's illustration.

This illustration was published in My Fairy Tale Picture Book by Alfred Hahn, Leipzig, together with numerous other classic fairy tales.

Johann Felix Elssner (1866-1945)

While most people have never heard of Felix Elssner, his illustrations belong to the most influential German art at the beginning of the 20th century. He created over 500 color lithographed school wall charts with scenes from popular fairy tales, thus shaping the visual memory of several generations.

 

The image above is from a picture postcard of his most successful era, when large-format color lithographs of his fairy tale illustrations were used as wall decorations in hundreds of classrooms until the beginning of the Second World War.

Bruno Grimmer (1879-1936)

The next set of images is from a standalone picture book, Mother Holle, published around 1930 in Nuremberg.

 

Bruno Grimmer-Kriwub was a very productive artist who illustrated picture books, designed posters and postcards, and often signed his works as Kriwub. Unfortunately, not much is known about his life.

Paul Hey (1867-1952)

Paul Friedrich Hey was another versatile and productive artist. His postcards were at least occasionally published together with the above-mentioned Felix Elssner.

As we can see in the featured greeting card, Hey's approach was closer to a painter than an illustrator. His greatest work is an album of collectible trading cards featuring fairy-tale motifs, published by Reemtsma, a German tobacco company.

Otto Kubel (1868-1951)

Otto Kubel was another painter and illustrator who worked on picture books, postcards, and school murals.

All three greeting cards above belong to a series of six cards published by Uvachrom AG in Munich.

Karl Muhlmeister (1876-1942)

The date of Muhlmeister's death is uncertain. According to available data, he died between 1942 and 1945.

This illustration was published in several collections by Ensslin & Laiblin in Reutlingen between 1910 and 1930.

Adolf Munzer (1870-1953)

Adolf Franz Theodor Munzer was a painter and graphic designer. His designs for collectible trading cards won an award from Ludwig Stollwerck.

The image above is from another school wall chart. It was published by the Wachsmuth publishing house in Leipzig.

Katharine Pyle (1863-1938)

Katharine Pyle was, of course, the sister of the famous Howard Pyle, often called the father of American illustration. She also possessed numerous talents.

Mother Hulda above is taken from Mother’s Nursery Tales, a selection of over 30 classic fairy tales that she selected, rewrote, and illustrated for E. P. Dutton & Company, New York. There are seven color plates altogether.

Wilhelm Rogge (1829-1908)

Wilhelm Rogge created the next illustration for Goldmarie and Pechmarie by Ludwig Bechstein.

Apart from a few decorative details, it's the same story as Grimms' Mother Holle, only published under a different title.

Otto Schott (1847-1935)

The next illustrations were published posthumously in a collection of five fairy tales by Verlag Josef Muller.

 

We don't know when the illustrations were created.

Fritz Schon (1871-1952)

Fritz Schon was another versatile artist who focused his creative powers on advertising materials.

 The featured trading card was created for Palmin, which promoted its brand of coconut fat with a series of collectible cards.

Georg Albert Strodel (1870-1938)

GA Strodel, as he often signed his works, illustrated Mother Holle between 1910 and 1915 for Josef Scholz Verlag from Mainz.

We can't add much at the moment.

Harry George Theaker (1873-1954)

Grimm’s Fairy Tales, published by Ward, Lock & Co., London, went through numerous reprints between 1920 and 1930, gradually adding more and more of Theaker's color plates.

These two illustrations by Harry G. Theaker conclude our journey through color illustrations of Mother Holle. In time, we will add more.